Improvement in sewing-machines



2 Sheds-Sheet 1.

A. SWINGLE.

SEWING MACHINE.

No. 11,507. Patented Aug. 8, 1854.

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2 Shet$-Sheet 2.

A. SWINGLE. SEWING MACHINE.

No. 11,507. Patented Au 8, 1854;.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED SWINGLE, OF BOSTON, MAss, ASSIGNOR To ELMER TOWNSEND.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No; 11,507, dated August 8, 1854. I

To allauhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED SWINGLE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and Stateof Massachusetts, have invented a new and use ful Sewing-Machine; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

0f the said drawings, Figure -1 denotes a front end elevation of my said machine. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of it; and Fig. 3 is a vertical,- eentral', and longitudinal section of it.

My machine, in performing the operation of sewing, employs two threads; and it uses a needle made with an eye near its point, one of the threads being carried through said eye, andwhen forced through the cloth the thread is carried through it in the form of aloop, the needle operating, essentially, the same as it does in machines which perform the operation of sewing by means of a needle and shuttle, each carrying a thread. In connection with the needle of my machine I employ, in order to pass the other thread through the loops formedby said needle, a device or contrivanec, or a combination of devices or contrivances, essentially different in its operation from that of a shuttle, for the thread, which I employ as a binding-thread to the thread carried by he needle, is used by me in a short piece, as the thread is employed in the sewingmar chine invented and patented in this country by Frederic R. Robinson, (the Letters Patent for the same bearing date the 10th day of Deeemher, A. D. 1850,) whereas the shuttle of the shuttle sewing-machines carriesa bobbin having a long thread.

In the drawings, A denotes the needle, which is arrangedrertieally and made to play up through the bench or table B, and by means of suitable machinery it is to have an intermittent, reciprocating, rectilinear motion, such as will cause it to pass up through the cloth and remain at rest during the operation of passing a thread through its loop, and next to descend, ,soasto pass out of the cloth. Such needle, in my machine is affixed in the upper endof a vertical carrier or slide, 0, which-is supported so as to slide freely upward and downward, and has a projection, D, extending into the groove a a of a grooved cam, E, fixed upon the main drivingshaft F of the machine.

The cam should be so formed as to cause the needle, after it has passed entirely upward through the cloth, to'mo've'downward a little, so as to bow out the thread of it, asis done in most, if not all, the shuttle sewing-machines. The object of this is to allow a-hook,

G, carried upon the lower end of a vibrating arm, H,- to pass through the loop, or between the thread and the needle. The said hook G is exhibited in the drawings as attached to an arm, H, extended .at an obtuse angle to the outer end of an arm, I, which is projected from a horizontal rocker-shaft, K, that is arranged and supported by standards L L, as seen in the drawings. This rocker-shaft has a reciprocating motion imparted to it by means of an eccentric, M, (fixed upon the drivingshaft F,) a connecting-rod, N, and-a crank, 0, said crank being extended from the rockershaft. In connection with the hook G, I .employ a rotary forked thread-carrier, P. This threadearrier has its axis disposed vertically and directly over the needle, or in line with it, and such thread-carrier is supported by and made to rotate horizo ntally in a goose-neck or arm, Qv Each .tine of the fork 1? is provided with a spring, R or S,,wl1ich is applied to it, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5, which are respectively side and edge views of the rotary forked threadcarrier.

During the operation of the machine the rotary thread-carrier is to have an intermittent rotary moyement-that is to say, while the hook G ismoved away from and made to approachthe thread-earrier the latter is revolved one hundred and eighty degrees of a circle, and it remains at rest during the time that the hook passes forward into it and backward out of it. This intermittentrotary motion is produced in part by means of two helixcams, c 0, arranged on opposite sides of the shank d of the carrier P, such cams being acted upon by a projection from the inner sides of a fork, T, that is made to embrace the upper part'of the shank of the carrier, and is jointed to the arm I, as seen in the drawings. The lower part of this fork T is guided in its vertical movement and slides upon and -between two vertical guides, U U. In connection with the two helix-cams c c, I employtwo otherand shorter helix-ca ms, f f,'which are arranged onopposite sides of the shank d and above the terminations of the before-mentioned helix-cams, each of the said smaller I I helix-cams being disposed in respect-to one of the'larger, as seen in the drawings. During the outward movementof the hook Gthe forkfaces creates ashort rotary motion of the forked thread-earrier, suflicient to brin'g the said projections directly over the larger helix-cams, in order that when the fork T next descends its projections shall be carried into contact with the large'rheliX-cams, and thereby, or during such descent, cause a semi-rotation of the fork thread-carrier, such forked thread-carrier remaining at rest after the same and until the projections of the fork T are next brought into contact with the lesser helix-cams. Wh en the maehineis in operation, the thread, which is worked by the hook G, extends from the cloth and-passes between the rearmost tine of the thread carrier and the spring of said tine, and it lies over the pat-h of the hook G, as seen at tin Figs. ,1 and 6-that is to say, the thread is so extended from the cloth that while the hookG is passing into the thread-carrier it shall move under and lift that part of the thread if 'which'extends from the carrier down to the cloth or material undergoing the oper ation of being sewed. This is so that, in order when the hook is drawn back, it may seize the threadt and draw it back with it through the loop of the needle A, it also drawing it through the space between the front tine, and the spring thereof, of the thread-carrier, such hook having previously entered said space during its passage into the thread-carrier.

In Fig. 6 I have exhibited the relative posiiions of the needle A, the hook G, the rotary'fork thread-carrier P, and the thread I, when the hook has entered to the full extent of its motion into the thread-carrier. When the thread i is drawn through the carrier P, it

is left supported by the tine thereof, between which and the spring of said tine the hook has drawn it. \Vhile thus supported, and during a portion of the descent of the needle, a semirotative movement of the thread-carrier takes place, and again presents the thread It in a-- proper position to be seized by the hook G when again drawn backward, the hook dursewing, and continue to draw said thread,

through each loop as it is formed by the needl'e, until the length of the thread t extending beyond the cloth is too short to pass from the cloth into the needle-carrier. The thread for the supply of the needle A is exhibited at a, and as passing from a bobbin, "0. The. feeding-wheel of the machine is seen at V, and the cloth-presser at WV, they being. constructed and made to operate as do similar devices in many other machines. Duringthe performance of sewing by the machine the forked thread-carrier winds the upper thread around the lower thread, and in this respect my machine performs sewing different from many other machines. I

Having thus described my invention, I would have it understood that what. I claim is The combination of the rotary fork threadcarrier P and the hook G, as made-to operate in connectionwith the needle A and perform sewing, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature this 8th day of February, A. D. 1854.

ALFRED SW INGLE.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

